The Social Cognitive Emotive Neuroscience (SCEN) Lab is devoted to understanding social, cognitive, and neural processes of emotions. We examine these processes through the use of behavioral, personality, and neurophysiological measures. Research in the SCEN lab investigates the neuropsychological and neurophysiological interplay of emotion, motivation, personality, and cognition (e.g., attention,
time perception). From these investigations, we have developed the Motivational Dimensional Model of cognitive scope, proposing that motivational direction and intensity influences cognitive and perceptual scope. Based on this model, our work has investigated the influence of positive and negative affects varying in motivational direction and intensity on attention, memory, time perception, and behavioral processes. In addition to neuropsychological investigations, we incorporate a breadth of neurophysiological measures to more fully examine the neural activity associated with emotion-cognition interaction. Other research in our lab focuses more broadly on the neural activity related to affective and motivational processes. Along these lines, our work examines hemispheric asymmetry, EEG frequency, event-related potentials, and reflex physiology. Utilizing these methods allows us to better understand the neural correlates of emotion and cognition, and more fully identify the critical role of motivational processes.
